True Love
by Moonfoot
Summary: The unfortunate adventure of a ramune bottle and what true love means to Ban and Ginji. Note Ramune is a Japanese carbonated drink, almost like a Sprite... It comes in a bottle witha marble in the neck which is not supposed to be removed.


You had to know that you truly loved someone when you spent three hours (though it would later be exaggerated into five or six) picking shards of glass out of their foot while they watched you with teary eyes and occasionally yanked their foot back as if you could possibly make it any worse than it already was. You _really_ knew you loved someone when you didn't more than grumble about the fact that this was their own 'damned' fault, and that if they hadn't been trying to get the marble out of the Ramune bottle -- which specifically warns against such idiocy -- this never would have happened. And when you didn't even mention that they'd lost the marble down a drainpipe in the confusion of blood? Yeah. That was true love.

"Next time, keep your shoe on." He knew better than to tell him not to do it at all.

"I didn't want to get it sticky."

"Nn..."

"But I got it sticky anyway."

"Well, you **did** try to put your foot in it while it was still bleeding."

There was another long silence as Ban yanked out the last few bits of glass. If there were any more, he couldn't see them. Besides, his hands were as bloody as if he'd just helped deliver a baby, and his pants were ruined where Ginji's foot was dripping on them. He gave a long-suffering sigh that both of them knew didn't mean anything, and nudged Ginji's foot down so that he whimpered when his mostly uninjured heal hit the ground.

"Come on, idiot--"

The indignity of washing both a bloody foot and an equally bloody shoe in a public bathroom went uncommented on, and Ban left Ginji standing like a flamingo while he went to buy bandages and a pack of cigarettes. By the time he'd finished with him, Ginji's foot was mummified and no longer fit in his shoe (which was soaking wet, anyway).

This adventure had effectively put a damper on any plans he may have had for the day... Which, really, wasn't much.

"Ban-chan..."

He wondered if telling him not to say it would be effective.

"I'm hungry."

Sigh.

"You just ate." Yeah. Right before he'd decided that the marble in the Ramune bottle was worth self-mutilation. Ban already knew that it was a losing argument. Ginji was hungry... Probably because he'd expended so much energy whining while Ban tried to keep him from bleeding to death. Keeping the blond fed was a never-ending battle, and maybe the only one he lost so consistently. It was more than a little frustrating.

"Come on."

At least Ginji looked pitiful enough to garner free food from Natsumi, who insisted on feeding him to bolster his ability to heal. Ban wasn't sure that he saw the correlation, but didn't complain because Ginji let him eat off of his plate without comment. Ban knew that for Ginji, that small allowance was just as much a declaration of love as his patience while picking out the glass.

Their partnership was based on such small favors and mutual understandings. Neither of them had ever signed a contract stating that Ban would put up with Ginji's idiosyncrasies, or vice-a-versa. They'd never even spoken about it. But that was the convention of their relationship; long conversations exploring the nature of their friendship were unneeded and unwelcome.

And at the end of the day when they were both squished into the car and Ginji was sprawled over with the gear shift in his side and Ban had a knee pressed uncomfortably against the steering wheel neither of them complained. Ginji tucked his head against Ban's shoulder, and Ban slung an arm around him, and they existed in mutual discomfort until it was time to shake out the stiffness and start all over again.

You had to know it was true love when Ban spent ten minutes the next day beating Ginji on the back when he finally managed to free the marble from his Ramune bottle, but swallowed and choked on it afterwards. And he didn't complain, even when Ginji coughed it back up, and they both looked at it together, and _lo and behold_... It was just a stupid piece of glass.


End file.
